The internet hates Elves because they’re classical fantasy and as a result are beloved by the silent majority of classical fantasy fans.
I enjoy Elves because they’re vanilla ice cream and white bread.
We are not the same. Why yes, he is also blonde and uses a (dual)sword.
Sidenote: this just gave me PTSD of the current DnD GMs restricting race choices argument raging across the internet for no real reason.
I’ve hated them before I became an internet gremlin 
Those DMs suck and should not DM. Let people have a choice in what they play as long as it makes sense for the setting and location
i just hate fae
The argument came up because Twitter does as Twitter does and immediately latched on to some poor guy posting an image of the races in his world and the ones he doesn’t allow in his written setting (as far as I’m aware he’s not even using the D&D 5E system but rather an OSR system). D&D Twitter got a hold of this and. . .the following result was catastrophic and the DM population will now suffer as a result of the crowd who want all options at all times everywhere.
They didn’t have to be, but both NElves and BElves have been steadily defanged over the years. And that’s a shame.
High Elves had the hypocrisy thing going for them but even they don’t have that anymore.
VElves almost started to have something cool but then everyone loves them and also you can use void portals with no downsides.
This is the crux of the discourse being what it is.
If a DM makes a setting where the only race is humans, so literally everything is restricted, is that bad? Well, opinions differ.
What about “LotR-lite” where you get humans/dwarves/elves/halflings but no gnomes/tieflings/dragonborn/etc.?
Personally I’m not a fan of full kitchen sink anything goes. I find that typically all it leads to is shallow stuff for most non-typical races where it’s like “oh, they’re…a magical accident and there’s only one of them ever” and like, yeah, cool, that’s fine, but it’s not really much to go on.
Even within wide settings I’ve restricted race choice before based on situation. When I did my Baldur’s Gate 1 game I cautioned against going too wide and weird. Some dude wanted to play an Awakened Bat. I said no even if it was setting ‘okay’ for forgotten realms. Did say yes to the dragonborn (well, half-dragon in lore).
Another game I played was only goblins, because it was a goblin game. And it was great. Another game I’m in, loosely based on “what if Castlevania, but D&D” restricted to basically being LotR-lite race-wise, as above. Works fine, as long as everyone knows ahead of time.
Eberron is one of my preferred settings and it’s pretty wide - has all the core guys, adds in some new guys (dragonmarked, changelings, warforged, kalashtar). Keith Baker has said that if it exists in D&D there’s a place for it in Eberron, and like…eh, kinda, but if a player wants to play a Loxodon in Eberron I’d definitely prefer if they didn’t so I don’t need to figure out where an entire new culture for the elephant people slots into Khorvaire.
Not peeve: got my Bretonnians ordered. I have missed them ever since the old models I had vanished into the ether, many many years ago.
Peeve: there is currently massive butt-hurt among online Tournie players, who apparently didn’t read/headcanoned otherwise an article all the way back in MAY last year, saying which factions were going to be in and not in TOW.
Apparently saying “The factions that are not the focus of TOW will get legacy PDF rules as a freebie for those with models still on the shell” was then taken as “These non-focus factions will still get FAQs and will totally be Tournie legal just the same as all the OTHER factions which are actually the focus of the game period/area!”
… Uh. Reading comprehension, much?
Sarah J. Maas will pay for her crimes against literature
Can you buy a mallobaude figure I love that little guy
No, this actually sucks honestly. “Here’s some rules, enjoy not getting to play these things at any event at all” isn’t fun and wasn’t exactly announced up until one day ago - before then they simply stated they’d get rules, just not be the focus of things.
I don’t think it’s strange to be disappointed that, one day before pre-orders go up, the armies people were excited to get to play again are actually not going to be welcome at any events at all, now go buy your mummies and french
sigmar does not approve, my old world plan looks to be several different empire armies (reikland, probably middenland/middenheim, and then either another province or something based on whatever they’ll come up with for an army of renown thing - maybe a knightly order & pals?)
Be whoever you want to be
Unless you can be The Black Serpent Of Mousillon, then always be him
It’s a bit of a shame, and I personally hope they eventually expand and update stuff when (hopefully) the system does well.
But it does feel like a big leap of logic for them to pretty explicitly say “These factions Will be the focus due to area/time period and these others Will Not” and then people to mentally tack on, with no evidence mind you “- oh but they’ll still be fine at Official Tournaments”.
Also, it is only GW Tournaments. 3rd Party Tournies will still entirely be within their rights to run all factions regardless.
shoots you
I mean, I think it’s pretty logical to assume that “this will get rules” equals “this will be playable at events”, personally!
This is pretty much entirely because Warhammer 40k’s “legends” rules for models that currently are not in production or the like is seen by tournament organisers as an official “ban list”, I think it’s very safe to say most 3rd party events will follow suit.
I think it’s mostly just a case of GW not really wanting people to get to go to official events and get too much fun playing with armies that, largely, are covered by AoS models in some weird ‘we mustn’t allow people to use stuff between the ecosystems™’ policy from HQ
not to worry, the blessing of the Lady will protect me from
[reads Mallobaude’s lore]
by talos this can’t be happening
I’m calling this the ‘Helborg special’
I know they said about there being no overlap with AoS models, which I can kinda-sorta understand? At least Empire and Cities of Sigmar are now actually distinct, for instance.
As for the rest, well;
What About the Other Factions?
Certain factions people remember from Warhammer Fantasy Battles are not part of the narrative we’re telling with The Old World, but will be provided with rules at the launch of the game.
Dark Elves
Skaven
Vampire Counts
Daemons of Chaos
Ogre Kingdoms
Lizardmen
Chaos DwarfsThese legacy faction army lists will be made available for free as pdfs as a service to fans who have these classic armies on their shelf, so they can still bring them to battle for old times sake. We don’t plan to publish rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar miniatures, except for those units that were part of the game and setting during the final edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
Personally ‘provided with rules at the launch of the game’ reads as pretty clearly a One Off, to me? Maybe that’s just me.
They do go on to give pretty comprehensive reasons why the other factions are not featured in the Old World time/setting;
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/05/23/old-world-development-diary-the-main-factions-revealed/
I just really do not see anywhere that gave people sensible, logical and evidential reason to think the non-Core factions were going to be included on even footing? Not trying to be mean, it just… doesn’t add up, to me?
Edit: Though, never say never.
Especially - “When Asavar Kul rises to become the 12th Everchosen, the power of Chaos will build again, but we won’t see daemonic servants of individual gods for a while yet.”
Chaos Intensifies
This reads like a dark timeline where Lintian is a nelf stan.
Thank god this is not reality.
I don’t think anyone was expecting them to be particularly good, competitive, or well-supported throughout the game’s lifespan, but “not allowed at any sort of event” just flat out sucks massively, and I think people are perfectly in their right to not be happy with this being announced a day before years of building hype and “no worries, even if your faction won’t be in the initial focus they’ll still be fully playable!” being promised.
I know in my own play group there’s some people that were looking forward to getting their old armies put to use again, but this has put a real downer on that, and it’s not fun when one part of a group gets to be all hyped and stoked and the other learns that actually, you’re barred from participating in a bunch of this
Personally, I was planning on getting a Dark Elf army going, but with the knowledge as of yesterday that none of the models for them not being sold right now will be put back on sale at any point, that plan’s been thrown out of the window as well.
I can’t really argue with that (and don’t disagree, anyway)
Here’s hoping they change that in time. I’m sure for some people that will be ‘too late’, and I guess that’s what got me a bit cranky; it just feels like every time I get motivation back for non-Bolt Action stuff (in this case, making a 40k list I didn’t hate was evading me for months solidly) the stuff I’m hyped for attracts a mini storm of ‘drama’ and suchnot.
Probably entirely selfish, and I’m not trying to claim otherwise. But not to detract from those with valid criticism, but there’s also an annoyingly loud cluster of supposed fans/players who seem to only exist to sling mud and hatred of ‘dead game’, etc. Heh.
Idk I think elves can be written interestingly, it’s just that a lot of the time people write or play elves because they are pretty.
And that’s fine on it’s own- Who knew people want to play pretty characters???
But I feel like for a lot of people that’s as far as it gets.
I always play the gremlin / despoiler races whenever I can. And age wise most of my characters are mature and/or old. Always have been. Even when I was young.
Idk why that is the case, it just makes me tick.
I guess the only other thing I can think of, off the back of the ‘No TOW/AoS crossover’ stuff is…
Say someone had an OG Dark Elf army (I’d say Vampires, but Deathrattle in AoS do have a lot of newer/stand in models, while Druchi have lost a lot of their old stuff) and took it to a Tournie, then did really well or won.
I’m guessing they want to avoid a have/have not situation where new or comp players want to try out a winning army and then find they flat out can’t, as it doesn’t technically exist any more?
And GWs stance on 3rd party or 3D prints is well known, so.